Waste Heat Management

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Today I'm at the SAE Government Industry meeting in Washington DC, expecting to get hit by a snow storm and get stuck here for the weekend. More importantly, EPA, Cummins, PACCAR and others are reporting on the upcoming greenhouse gas and fuel consumption regulations for 2018 to 2027.

As expected, the EPA stands behind its analysis that there is a huge, net benefit to the industry and society to compensate for the cost increase. Their projection is an additional $11,700 over what you are expected to pay in 2018 when the current regulations are fully in effect. As I've looked at technology for various clients in this industry, waste heat management or Rankine cycles stuck out as something several people were suggesting could be important to further improvements.

Cummins has steadily invested in this area and is now on its 4th generation of prototypes. Indications are they are ready to start testing with a customer in the real world and could have it in production "as early as" 2020. If they did accomplish that, it would, obviously, be low volume and higher cost than average engines. But, it would be a start to proving out the technology as this industry needs, rather than having it introduced in high volume, before it is ready.

Tongue in cheek, I would say that Cummins is a leader in 6 Sigma and Lean Manufacturing and they are just at the forefront of eliminating waste!

Eliminating the excise tax to encourage new technology on trucks has been around for some time. Usually, it has been proposed for safety technology. Encouraging for safety of the environment, i.e. emissions, is a new idea. It does positively impact the budget of fleets, but it negatively impacts the budget of the country.